


Christmas with the Ferguson Girls

by TheCreatorOfTales



Series: The Governor's Family [5]
Category: Wentworth (TV)
Genre: CHRISTMAS CHAOS, Charlie is obsessed with Frogs and Baby Yoda i dont make the rules, Domestic Fluff, F/F, ITS SO DOMESTIC, Soft and FLUFFYYY, parent! Joan and Vera
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:47:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28301817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCreatorOfTales/pseuds/TheCreatorOfTales
Summary: It’s Christmas in the Ferguson/Bennett household.Absolute chaos ensues.So soft, fluffy and Christmas Excitement is rampant in this fic!
Relationships: Vera Bennett/Joan Ferguson
Series: The Governor's Family [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956403
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	Christmas with the Ferguson Girls

They wait, cuddled on the sofa and watching a documentary about true crime to pass the time as they wait to make sure that the girls are all sound asleep before attempting to set up the living room for the next morning. Eventually, they eye the clock above the mantle, and think that enough time has passed.

They look in on each girl, peeking their heads around the doors, grinning at Charlie, who is curled around her favourite soft teddy, a frog that is almost as big as she is, and she’s managed to jam a Santa hat on its head. Tasha is spread eagle in her bed, as always, on her back with her mouth wide open and snoring softly. She has the leg of a large flamingo teddy clutched in one hand, and the thing is hanging off the bed. Stifling a laugh, Joan enters her bedroom and grasps the duvet from the floor where Tasha has thrown it off in her sleep. Draping it carefully over the four year old, she tucks the fabric around her niece carefully, puts the flamingo next to her and then places a kiss on her forehead as the little girl sighs deeply and mutters something unintelligible in her sleep.

As they look carefully around the door to the furthest bedroom in the hallway, both women are smiling softly. Cara has fallen asleep with her book open in her lap again, still sitting up.

Sharing a smile, both Vera and Joan work as a team, removing the book and moving the nine year old bookworm down in her bed and pulling up the covers. Pressing a kiss on her forehead and turning off the lamp, they make their way to their own bedroom, quietly pushing the door but not shutting it entirely. Joan knows from previous experience that the twins will be up at 7am on the dot, and will drag Cara out of bed by her feet in their haste to wake up their aunts. She’s given Vera ample warning and the pair have shared more than one laugh as the excitement in the house has grown throughout the month, reaching a crescendo tonight as the three girls left out biscuits and a glass of milk and had their annual Christmas Eve photo taken in front of the cheerfully decorated tree in the living room. They also had their pictures taken with their aunts, all sporting Santa hats in their pyjamas with large smiles, Joan and Vera included. Both photos would be placed on the wall in the hallway with pride by the new year and Joan would take a copy to leave in work, out of sight from any visitors to her office, but in a spot that she could look at it if she wanted. Vera would request a keychain to put on her car-keys and would keep the picture as her phone background for months. After Bridget had discovered the girls relation to Joan, they’d sat and considered the pros and cons of keeping the girls, and their relationship a deeply guarded secret within the walls of Wentworth. After a discussion, they’d decided that whilst they wouldn’t come out and shout it through the hallways of the prison, they would stop trying to hard to hide it.

Joan and Vera had herded the three girls up to their beds at their bedtimes and then waited an hour before checking if they were asleep. Cara’s habit of sneaking an extra chapter before succumbing to sleep was well known to the both of them as was the twins own sleep habits. Once again, the women had been proven right. Happy that the three girls wont be disturbed, Joan and Vera start their plan.

Vera turns on the bright light on the ceiling of their bedroom, and the two women get to work, pulling presents from every nook and cranny of their room, piling them all on the bed. Vera goes through their closet, pulling perfectly wrapped parcels out of shoe boxes, having hidden them in plain sight. She reaches into the depths of the closet behind the clothes and pulls out numerous more.

Joan is under the bed, pulling out presents that she’s been storing since June. Vera thinks that although Joan never expected to raise children, the gene for present preparation had activated itself very quickly, if the way the woman had been organised was anything to go by. When Vera emerges from their bathroom, where she’d hidden a few gifts in the cabinet by the sink, she has to clamp her lips together to stop her laughter. All she can see is Joan’s legs from the waist down as pale hands shove presents out from under the bed, accompanied by muffled swearing.

Amused, Vera leans against the doorframe of the bathroom, watching as the firm backside in sleep shorts covered in flamingos with Santa hats wiggled its way out from underneath the bed, and Joan sat up, flicking her hair over her head and pushing it out of her eyes with one hand. Vera thinks the move is sexy as hell but doesn’t mention it, knowing that they don’t have the time tonight to get frisky.

She remembers the first Christmas that she’d spent with the Ferguson girls. Vera had become a regular sight at the house, with the girls allocating a space on the sofa next to Joan as hers, along with a specific mug with flowers on it that nobody else used. Each person in the house had their own mug, from the youngest individual to the oldest. The twins had picked it out especially for her and Tasha had given it to her after cuddling into her side, saying that she needed her own mug because she lived there too. They’d asked her to move in on New Year’s Eve, and Vera had accepted immediately, hugging all her girls to her.

She remembers the first Christmas, because it was the first time she’d had the opportunity to play Santa for excited children.

_“You’ll make sure that Santa can get down the chimney, please Vee?” Charlie had asked her, with big worried eyes, Tasha had been stood slightly behind her sister with a similar expression. Joan was in the kitchen, busy trying to detangle tinsel from Cara’s hair that the twins had managed to knot in the nine year old’s curls. “You got to make sure the door is open!” Vera had been confused at first, until she remembered that they had a log burner in place of a fireplace, which explained Charlie’s concern about the ‘door’ being left open._

_Vera had an idea to put their little worries to rest._

_“Come on, I’ll show you what we’ll do.” Together, the twins had clutched at her hands, and she made a show of unlatching the door to the log burner, which hadn’t been used in nearly 2 months, due to the heatwave they were currently experiencing. She then pushed the door back into place, but left the latch open. At least this way, it would stop most insects or spiders getting into the house through the flume._

_She’d patiently explained to the girls how Santa would only need to push the door and it would open, until two little heads were nodding at her, a satisfied look in their eyes. She’d noticed Joan leaning on the doorframe to the living room, a soft look in her eyes and smile stretched across her face._

_Later, both women laid out the wrapped gifts in neat, separate piles for each girl. They’d picked out most of them together, and had spent many an evening in the past week wrapping them in bright paper, a different colour for each child._

_Vera had loved every second._

Joan’s voice pulls her back from her happy memories.

“Right, I think that’s everything from in here.” She says, noticing Vera watching her with a soft smile on her face.

They manage to get all the presents downstairs and arranged in three piles, one for each girl.

They spend nearly two hours building a swing set that has a connected slide, as well as a climbing wall on the back, complete with monkey bars in the backyard. Cursing, laughing and some wine was involved, but eventually the present for all three girls was completed.

Joan makes sure that each pile of gifts are clearly separated, with the girls names on each one on a piece of paper so there will be no squabbling in the morning. She turns and looks over at the Christmas tree, with its twinkling lights and cheerful baubles and tinsel. This tree was decorated by Joan and Vera, with each ornament meticulously placed, and the lights are a subtle warm white. Vera had the idea of getting ornaments that doubled as photo frames, so pictures of the girls, all five of them together and pictures of Joan and Vera are dotted throughout the tree in sparkly frames in various, Christmas appropriate shapes. Joan never thought she’d see her face in a snowflake, but there we are, such is the power of Vera’s persuasion. Towards the top of the tree sits a more ostentatious frame, secured on the branch with a grey ribbon tied in a bow and one that had made all three girls sniff a little when they saw it in its own box, carefully protected by bubble wrap. A picture of Alexandra and her husband Harry, grinning at the camera and holding the star that they’d used on their own first Christmas tree in their tiny apartment in Dublin before the girls had been born. All three girls had helped place that ornament in the perfect spot, eventually happy with its placement. They’d also carefully tucked tinsel around the two frames hanging on the wall in the hallway, where they’d been since Joan had received the photos through the mail from her sister. One of their wedding day, her sister and her brother-in-law standing together, looking at one another and one of Alexandra, Harry and the three girls all crowded together with big, wide grins. The girls had adored it, turning and hugging Joan at the same time, making her topple back into the sofa as she held all three girls to her, squeezing gently and placing kisses on all three foreheads. 

In the corner of the hallway, tucked into the curve of the stairs facing the front door is the girls Christmas tree. Covered in Disney Princesses in various poses hanging on ribbons from the branches, along with glittery ballerinas en pointe, frozen in dance poses and sparkly plastic ballet shoes displayed proudly on the pink ribbons used for ballet shoes. The Disney baubles had been on Tasha’s insistence, whilst the ballerinas and shoes had been Cara’s. Charlie had decided that seeing as her sisters had the baubles sorted, that she would make sure the lights, tinsel and star were perfect. Thus, the tree by the stairs had bright green and silver tinsel, with multicoloured lights and a star that dropped glitter every time someone reached up to make sure it wasn’t about to fall off. Vera had heard Joan cursing up a storm about the glitter getting everywhere one evening after the girls had gone to bed, so had scheduled the Roomba to scoot its way and vacuum around the tree each evening. Despite the Roomba’s best efforts, the two women still managed to find glitter in the dishwasher, the microwave and on cushions, not mention in their hair and eyebrows.

Both trees had plenty of presents pushed underneath them.

After digging out the each girl’s main gift out of the garage, one of which had Vera vowing to never wrap another present again, the two agree that they may as well go to bed and enjoy the six hours of sleep they’ll get. 

They fall into bed, arms automatically wrapping around one another, and a tanned leg rises to curl around a pale waist.

* * *

It’s Charlie who practically kicks open their bedroom door, screeching that its Christmas and making a beeline for the bed where two figures are huddled under the covers, feigning sleep. They’d heard the loud whispering of whether it was late enough to wake their aunts, or whether they should wait a bit longer. Charlie bounds over the bed, the four year old has a Santa hat with Baby Yoda ears perched lopsidedly on her head and her frog teddy clutched in one arm. Tasha quickly follows her sister, sprinting to keep up with her. Tasha has her own pair of reindeer antlers with bells on a headband on her head, and she jingles as she runs. Her own favourite flamingo teddy is being dragged across the floor behind her by one of its feet. Cara follows behind at a more sedate pace, trying to cover a yawn with her hand as she shuffles in, already wearing the Christmas socks that Vera had placed in her Christmas stocking.

The twins hit the bed with an ‘OOMPH!’ and as always their aim is perfect. Joan and Vera both groan loudly as they feel the combined weight of the twins hit their thighs and legs. Vera sits up first, reaching out to make sure none of the girls topple off the bed in over excitement. Cara perches by Joan’s side, in the small space of bed between her elbow and the edge of the mattress. Joan reaches a hand out and ruffles her hair, tucked into a messy braid that hangs over her shoulder. Slowly, Joan sits up and shuffles herself backwards, reaching back to push up the pillows and settles back, opening her arm so that Cara can snuggle into her side. It’s the position Cara always takes whenever there’s any kind of cuddles in her aunts bed.

“Where are your stockings then, girls? You haven’t tiptoed all the way from your rooms and not brought them, have you?” Vera teases, and the twins face drop in horror as they realise that in their haste to wake up their aunties, they’ve forgotten to bring their Christmas stockings, left outside their doors. The pair topple off the bed and sprint out of the room, making thundering noise to grab each one.

They soon return, Charlie holding hers in both hands, whilst Tasha is slightly slower, bringing Cara’s with her, having noticed that her older sister had left hers outside the bedroom door too, after rummaging through it. After the two women help them back onto the bed, all three girls turn the oversized socks upside down and pour over the contents, oohing and aaahing the entire time.

Joan and Vera sit, leaning against one another, revelling in the sound of the girlish excitement, the squealing, the chatter and the exclamations of ‘BABY YODA!’ by Charlie when she spots the colouring book with the Star Wars character on it.

The girls don’t rush, they take their time to look and appreciate what they’ve received, and they also find time to snuggle under the duvet with Joan and Vera, enjoying the hugs and hair ruffles.

When everyone is ready to go downstairs, they go as a family, still in their pyjamas and somehow Charlie has managed to wrangle the Baby Yoda Santa hat onto Vera’s head, and Joan is sporting the antlers headband with bells on it, jingling the entire way down the stairs.


End file.
